Mutagenesis: Interactions with a parallel universe

Publication date: Available online 3 February 2018
Source:Mutation Research/Reviews in Mutation Research
Author(s): Jeffrey H. Miller
Unexpected observations in mutagenesis research have led to a new perspective in this personal reflection based on years of studying mutagenesis. Many mutagens have been thought to operate via a single principal mechanism, with secondary effects usually resulting in only minor changes in the observed mutation frequencies and spectra. For example, we conceive of base analogs as resulting in direct mispairing as their main mechanism of mutagenesis. Recent studies now show that in fact even these simple mutagens can cause very large and unanticipated effects both in mutation frequencies and in the mutational spectra when used in certain pair-wise combinations. Here we characterize this leap in mutation frequencies as a transport to an alternate universe of mutagenesis.



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